By the time VA director of new media Brandon Friedman woke up at 6 a.m., he already had several e-mails in his inbox alerting him to the note posted by a distraught veteran. Friedman hadn't even showered yet.

"It was like a deer in the headlights moment," said Friedman, an Army veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who had been hired to promote VA services on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

The possibility that a veteran might use one of the social media sites to express intention for self-harm had never occurred to Friedman.

"We were not in good shape in terms of preparing for something like that, so it was a huge lesson for us," he said of the incident in April. "We handled it. Everything turned out OK. ... I was determined not to have somebody end their own life on my watch."

Now his staff monitors Facebook around the clock, and Friedman has VA's director of suicide prevention on speed dial. If a veteran expresses suicidal thoughts in a post or comment, a trained counselor will reach out and contact that veteran directly.

A crucial factor

In the urgent search for innovative ways to combat the alarming rise of military suicides, social media sites have become an unexpected lifeline for veterans in crisis.

"It's amazing when you call a veteran on the phone because you've been able to locate them and you say, 'I'm very concerned about what you wrote on the Facebook page and I want to talk to you about it,'" said Janet Kemp, VA national mental health director for suicide prevention. "They're truly amazed that someone cared enough to do that."

Kemp estimated that VA investigates suicidal posts on Facebook about once every six weeks or so.

Two or three might occur in a cluster and then weeks will go by before it happens again, she said.

"We've gotten some into care who perhaps weren't in care before, so I feel good about that," Kemp said. "Sometimes it just takes knowing that someone is listening to them to really make a difference."

They know the situation

The Army lost a record 163 soldiers nationwide to suicide last year. Since 2001, other branches of the armed forces also have experienced increased suicide rates as the civilian rate remained steady.

"Online tools are not the silver bullet for these problems, but they're an absolutely essential piece of the overall solution," said Daniel Atwood, director of digital engagement for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a national advocacy group.

In 2008, IAVA created "Community of Veterans," an online social network for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

Veterans must submit documents to the site to prove they served in Iraq or Afghanistan before they're allowed to join.

"The thing that sort of differentiates it is that it's a space where everyone on there knows they're talking to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, which gives it that exclusivity and confidentiality," Atwood said.

An online emergency involving a veteran at risk of suicide occurs about once a month, Atwood said.

In such cases, Community of Veterans members have been able to get in touch with IAVA staff, who works with the veteran to get help, he said.

Online connections are particularly important to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, not just because their generation is very media savvy but also because they're geographically dispersed, Atwood said.

About 14 percent of America's population served in World War II, Atwood said. As a veteran at the time, "you likely had someone in your neighborhood who shared that experience with you," he said.

Today less than 1 percent of Americans serve in the military, so an online meeting place can help bridge those gaps, lessening the sense of isolation some veterans experience when they return from combat, Atwood said.

"This new generation is facing a new set of challenges," he said. "They've got elevated unemployment and climbing suicide rates, so building that community despite those distances is critical."

New website coming

The site will include job listings for veterans and an eMentoring program that will allow members to chat one-on-one with fellow vets who've been trained as peer mentors.

"We are taught to identify certain indicators or warning signs where somebody sounds like they're going to hurt themselves or someone else, obviously we're going to get them help," said LSVA president John Boerstler, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq.

But the website's primary purpose is to create a social network for Houston-area veterans and their families, Boerstler said.

Veterans will be able to post blog entries, add friends, invite them to events offline, leave comments, upload photos and join groups, like on Facebook. "It's just an opportunity to keep that camaraderie alive and meet other veterans and be there for one another in case they do have issues," Boerstler said.